Monday, December 19, 2005

Idiot Policy 2

"It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy."

That was the President's reaction today about the revelation of the idiotic policy of illegally eavesdropping on citizens' international phone calls and emails. Of course, the President was emboldened by the following statement by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

"Our position is that authorization to use force, which was passed by the Congress in the days following September 11, constitutes that other authorization ... to engage in this kind of signals intelligence."

I'm confused. Force = eavesdropping?

Then Gonzales admitted:

"One might argue, now wait a minute, there's nothing in the authorization to use force that specifically mentions electronic surveillance."

OK, so is it really legal?

It should be noted that when this policy was developed, Gonzales was the White House counsel, the same person who said detainees realy had no rights.

The White House has also said that Democratic leaders were informed, and that they had no objections to the program. Yet, Bob Graham, who was head of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, said he was never informed of the specifics of the program, and both Nancy Pelosi and Jay Rockefeller say they objected.